


VIP to Me

by Caitiemay34



Category: Selfie (TV)
Genre: Awkwardness, F/M, Friendship, Misunderstandings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-26
Updated: 2014-12-04
Packaged: 2018-02-27 01:51:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2674430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caitiemay34/pseuds/Caitiemay34
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A continuation of Even Hell Has Two Bars. Apparently not everyone is on the same page about Eliza and Henry's non-relationship.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Every time I watch this episode (you really don't want to know how many times that is!), I always get to the part at dinner and hear about "Henry's plan" from a different perspective. Here's a new take on the events after and the awkwardness that ensues!

“Where’s your better half?”

The weekend had been a disaster. 

“Eliza? She’s gone sir, I believe she’s gone. I fouled it up. Just like I fouled up everything this weekend.”

Somehow he had lost a promotion and his friend in a period of two days and a minor emotional breakdown. And now he was groveling in front of his boss, trying to find a way to pick up the pieces. 

“I had a plan. Some might call it a perfect, flawless plan. One that took the better part of three years and sixteen thousand dollars to put into action.”

In the course of finding out that he hadn’t ruined his career, he missed the looks between the other people at the table. 

“She’s VIP.”

\-------EH--------  
He let Eliza have a few minutes to get caught up on everything she had missed in the last 24 hours. There was apparently more to the world than Freddy’s nudes (thank god!). 

“I really am sorry for what I said earlier,” he tried to make his apology casual but sincere as they walked the majestic-horse-bathed-in-moonlight back to the barn. 

“I know.” She said it simply but he still heard the hurt he had caused. She was different out here without the social media chatter and people to impress. She was softer, less @The_Doolio and more, just Eliza. The girl with few friends and a big heart for each of them. 

The horse pulled against Henry’s hand and nudged the red head walking on its other side. She giggled and rubbed its snout as they slowed to a halt. 

“Yes Moonlight, you know you’re majestic, don’t you,” she crooned. 

“You named the horse Moonlight?” Henry let out a little laugh as he tried to tease the tension away. 

“What would you name him?” Eliza asked without looking away from the horse nuzzling into her hair.

“VIP.” She looked up at him with raised eyebrows. “But that’s only for you.” It took a moment but she finally gave him a genuine, Eliza Dooley smile. She suggested a selfie with Moonlight and for the first time, Henry didn’t tell her no or wax philosophical about how vain they were. For the first time, he wanted the photo and to remember this moment. 

“I don’t know Higgs,” the teasing came back into her voice as they left the barn and a safely stored Moonlight. He let out a relieved breath as she continued. “This was your promotion weekend and despite your boring conversations and your hissy fit,” he gave a protest but she ignored him, throwing in more hand-gestures,” and your destruction of a sacred place, it still turned out okay. That’s pretty VIP to me.” 

He pulled her aside before the door to the dining room, hearing a small din of conversation beyond. Henry felt like he needed to tell her, thank her for everything she had done. Really tell her what he couldn’t in the field when they found a signal and lost the moment. But when her golden eyes met his he knew it wouldn’t come out. 

“Thanks for everything.” She smiled again, that blindingly soft smile that rarely came out and went into the room ahead of him. Henry felt it settle over him and let the warm hum excite him. It was time to celebrate his promotion. 

“Congratulations you guys!” Maureen shrieked as he walked in. Saperstein’s wife was beaming. In fact, everyone around the table was looking at them with a disconcerting joy. 

“A promotion and an engagement in one weekend! You are a very lucky man!” Saperstein was next to him, kissing Eliza’s hand and moving to pull him into a hug.

“A what?” his companion had found her voice sooner than he though she still seemed stupefied. 

“Oh come now,” his boss said conspiratorially, “we knew what Henry was doing out there. I just didn’t know it had been three years! You certainly kept that under wraps! Good show, flirting with other coworkers and pretending you didn’t know each other!”

“Sir, I’m confused,” Henry’s voice wobbled in time with the glass of champagne that had appeared in his hand. 

“We’re celebrating you! Your engagement to Eliza! The plan that took three years and sixteen thousand dollars to complete? ” Saperstein looked almost as confused as Eliza and Henry at this point. “An engagement and a ring?” 

“Daddy, she doesn’t have a ring,” Maureen said, now looking embarrassed at her previous exuberance. 

“Wait, you though Henry was going to propose to me?” He didn’t know if he could get any redder at Eliza’s realization. Everyone was now looking at him. He would prefer to be swallowed by the ground or be eaten by the leaches in the lake again. She protested them being together a little too vehemently for his pride, but he didn’t have any words so he let her speak, as usual. She explained the horseback riding plan and he was pretty sure he went up a shade or two. Or maybe it was the champagne he chugged. 

Dinner became a quiet affair after that. His boss attempted to buoy the evening but it officially sank when the congratulations cake came out of the kitchen topped with sparklers and glitter tossed over them by the chef. Two more shades. Eliza excused herself after that and he felt too embarrassed to go after her once he left. He had lost his best friend, gained her back and accidentally became engaged to her in the span of two hours. It was definitely time for bed. 

He fell face-first onto the matress with a groan of frustration. How had his life become so ridiculous? That’s right: his better half. The phrase gave him an instantaneous—and unsolicited—zing. Perhaps they would never talk about it. This night, the zing, the energy that seemed to flow between them. How Saperstein seemed intent on red-headed Koreans. He rolled over and grabbed a pillow to knot in his hands. How she made him a better person while he was doing the same for her. How smart she was, but in an unconventional way. How she seemed so superficial but was actually a whole lot more. How she really was his better half.

Said half who was currently knocking quietly and urgently. 

“Heeeeeenry.” 

His frustrated “What?!” was muffled by the pillow he had placed over his face as he debated smothering himself to avoid his embarrassingly sappy thoughts. She slipped in quietly and he felt her stand near his feet. He still didn’t lift the pillow. 

“Congratulations on your promotion.”

It was all she said and she stood there for a couple more seconds, just waiting. He lifted his pillow and was assaulted by his favorite red headed unicorn gracing him with a small smile. He hefted a laugh as he sat up.

“Thank you, Eliza.” He said it and somehow put all of what he wanted into it. She gave him a quick hug and lept over him onto the other side of the bed.

“So tell me about it! And hand me your slipper chocolate while you’re at it.”  
Henry gave another laugh and handed her the candy without resistance. 

Maybe it was time for a new plan.


	2. A Thousand on December

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There was a request for more and to find out what happens next. This may be tandem at the moment but there may be more chapters in the future. Stay tuned!

After an overly gracious thanks Henry’s suit blurred as he left the room as quickly as he could. 

“Young love,” his wife sighed nostalgically. 

“Do you think he’ll do it tonight?” Maureen was looking at Terrence with a mixture of excitement and love as he took her hand. 

“What do you mean dearest?” 

“Clearly he’s proposing tonight—sixteen thousand dollars and three years? Obviously he’s talking about his proposal that went wrong because of this weekend and his overly uptight self. Maybe he’s doing it right now!” Maureen did have a compelling argument but Saperstein wasn’t convinced. It was tempting to think that he—or at least his company—had brought the two love-birds together. 

“Maybe that’s why he was in such a strange mood all weekend.” Yasmine did have a point. It would explain his nerves, lack of compelling conversation and jump into the forbidden lake. And those impossibly tight riding pants

“And did you see the way that they were whispering to each other the whole time? AND how they spent so much time in each other’s room? He went there immediately after the whole lake thing.” His daughter really was a smart cookie. 

Terrence was on board with this new theory too, “They were sitting awfully close on the ride in and they are constantly visiting each other and eating lunch together at work. I’m almost positive that Charmonique has a betting pool started on them getting together. Maybe we just didn’t see it until now.” 

“That settles it!” Saperstein boomed, “Let’s get some champagne ready and tell the chef to add some script, sparklers and pizazz to dessert! We’re going to turn their night around and celebrate them in style!”

They waited in the dining room for almost an hour, growing impatient as they waited for the couple to return. Eventually he heard them outside the door but they paused and his patience almost couldn’t take it. Based on Maureen’s fidgeting, he wasn’t alone. “I just want to see the ring!” She hissed at Terrence when he tried to calm her down. 

As soon as Eliza entered Maureen jumped up and gave and excited shriek. Yazmine was more restrained in her excitement, giving an indulgent look and a few happy claps. Terrence just smiled in the dopey way that he always did. When Henry entered a moment later, Maureen couldn’t contain herself, shouting a congratulations while Saperstein rose from his chair to hug the couple. 

It all went downhill from there.   
\---

When Henry finally slunk from the table, there was a collective and embarrassed sigh. 

“I just really thought,” Maureen didn’t even finish, looking like her favorite characters missed out in the season finale. 

“We all did.” Terrence just looked surprised. Yazmine, the classiest of them all just stood up with authority. 

“Well, let’s not make the rest of the evening as embarrassing. Let’s give them some privacy and perhaps they will come around. I want in on that betting pool Terrence. Her son-in-law looked more pleased than ever as she left the room. 

As the evening wore on, Saperstein decided to go find Henry and apologize in person, just as Henry would do. He hadn’t given up on the idea of the red-headed Korean babies, but he knew that an apology about the embarrassment was needed to move the evening, and their friendship, along.   
The thick paneled door couldn’t hide the giggles of a certain red-head but Saperstein was more surprised to hear the baritone chuckles of his new Marketing VP seep through the door. Henry never laughed, not in the last 7 years that he had known him. Literally never. But there it was again, the low murmurs of conversations followed by Eliza’s higher tone and laughter from both. 

“Is he still upset?” Saperstein jumped as his wife surprised him at the door. “Or perhaps just the opposite.”

He put his arm around Yazmine and led her back to their wing of the house, “I think they’ll be just fine.” 

“I have five hundred on next April.”

“Why April?”

“She’d want a fall wedding to go with that hair and it takes at least a year and a half to plan.” Yazmine did have a point. But he knew them both better than his wife. 

“I have a thousand on December.”


	3. That Part

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay, okay. I'm a sucker for additional chapters. And for Selfie. And for that last episode (whaaaaat?!!?!). Here's another with more to follow.

They had finally gotten past the awkwardness of the weekend two weeks prior by simply not talking about it. Saperstein still looked flustered when he encountered them together but overall, they seemed to be getting back to normal.

Until Tuesday.

Eliza had been acting weird, asking him about hiking and turn-offs and trying to take his picture and a whole manner of other things that they just _didn’t_ talk about. Even Saperstein was asking about STDs. What was with everyone?

And now, as he was in an important meeting with Larry, trying to figure out how to tell him that “no, 51% of mice surviving the trial was _not_ a marketable success,” she comes bursting in.

With her overemphasized greeting and rays of sunshine, he officially doesn’t care how many mice survived. But he still tries to get back to business.

“Listen, I was wondering if you were free on Thursday.”

He sees Larry’s eyebrows shoot up but ignores them even as Larry makes plans for him in his stunned, awkward way. Before Henry can even counter it, Eliza tells him to rest up and saunters off in that irritatingly distracting way that she does.

“She has been acting so weird lately,” he laments. Despite his oddities, Larry was married and could maybe provide him with some sort of insight. But he had to be wrong, especially with that Laser pointer of his.

“She doesn’t want me.”  He hoped that his voice sounds less rueful to Larry than it does to his own ears.

Larry remains persistent and the small part of Henry’s heart starts to tickle with the warmth of possibility. But no, there’s no way.

And no way that he is taking any of Larry’s “sups.” Or thinking about Larry and his cousin. Or Eliza and him being less family-like than he claims. Nope, no way at all. But that damn warmth spreads a little further.

\---

Even Roth couldn’t distract him from what just happened.

Eliza had been gaining the upper hand and he had gotten nervous. She told him to touch her, edged him into a corner and despite his own protests, his mind just blanked. Suddenly there was no space between them or his heart and ribcage. When she rose up on her toes, he knew she felt it too. She still broke first, despite her usually sexually aggressive personality. But this wasn’t just sex and clearly they had something else to talk about.

He still hadn’t moved away from the bookcase.

\---

It wasn’t just sex. She had jumped in her car and kept driving anywhere but home. For the first time in a very, very long time, Eliza Dooley felt more than just that burning attraction that came with close contact. That other part of her—the part that quietly nudged her every time she slept with Freddy or calculated the best way to bump her social media ratings, the part that longed for true connection and friendship—that part had woken up at his touch, finding more than hollow attraction alive once again.

But it was terrifying and had driven her from Henry’s house and into a sleepless night. Now they were walking toward the bar that Charmonique had reserved and the tension radiated between them. This was worse than the non-proposal. This was real. It was real and angry and now Henry was walking away and she couldn’t let him go. That Part panicked.

He was supposed to take the cookie and she was supposed to let him and so she did, but it still wasn’t quite right. That Part pulled back quietly, giving its own resigned sigh. They were friends and that was enough, even if she had considered more to the detriment of her heart’s rhythm. No one is allowed that much happiness, especially her.

She called Freddy as she walked away.


End file.
